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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Buy | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | Ggultra2764 | # |
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The Pros: RahXephon is an anime with a vast amount of character and plot information for viewers to take in as the series progresses. In Ayato’s quest to learn of his true past, there are hints of the pasts of various characters, besides Ayato, revealed throughout the series which viewers have to piece together to better understand the motivations and personalities of who they see throughout the series. The series also brings along a number of plot twists that introduce new details concerning the Mulians or complicate Ayato’s quest to find his true past as he runs into conflict. These elements create a complex world by which viewers have to put together the pieces of a character or plot element that are unclear. These details are easy to pick apart if the viewer observes and listens to them well enough. In terms of animation, RahXephon features smooth, detailed animation that flows brilliantly with the show’s mecha battle scenes and is above average for animation done for an anime TV series in 2002. The soundtrack varies between being energetic, intense, or haunting depending on whatever major revelation the series hints at next. The choice of opening music gives a great deal of intensity and the closing music gives a sense of mystique which flow well with the sequence concerning the mysteries surrounding Reika and Quon. The Cons: In most episodes, RahXephon has a habit of falling into a monster-of-the-day plot sequence much like a typical mecha show. In addition, there are a few plot elements to the series left unclear including when the Mulians first invaded and details behind the Mulian presence on Earth following its takeover of Tokyo. Facts on the Series: -The series was followed up with a movie (RahXephon: Tagen Henshou Kyoku) and a manga series created by Takeaki Momose in 2004, both of which offered alternative takes on the TV show’s plot. Last updated Wednesday, January 09 2008. | ||||||||
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| Rent | 10 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 9 | Devil Doll | # |
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[Score: 80%]
Yes, if you know and like Shin Seiki Evangelion this will help you find an easy way into this show: The visual design of the "RahXephon" is absolutely taken from Evangelion, the Dolems sure have certain Angel attributes, and several of the battles use patterns from certain Evangelion battles. Also, the structure of the involved organizations does remind of SEELE and NERV. But as for the underlying world and culture, RahXephon somehow played it safe and just wrote another Atlantis saga while Evangelion invented a new world. So Evangelion is the greater challenge and might consequently be more difficult to understand - which I am fine with. Through the first couple of episodes I automatically tried to assign Evangelion roles/characters (Misato, Rei, Gendou, Asuka, ...) to persons I encountered in RahXephon. But then I came to a point where I wondered whether the underlying premise weren't closer to Silent Mobius (this idea seems to have been ignored for some episodes but is revived when the Vermilion appears and remains important for a number of episodes before it is finally dropped again). So where is this one different from Evangelion? First of all, this series provides a large number of characters. I dislike only one of them, yet many of them remain underused in the end. And there's a pattern: In Evangelion many characters have more or less crippled minds - in RahXephon many characters are more or less suffering from unrequited love. Then, the mecha elements and the tech-talk are much less important here. While Evangelion used a lot of time and effort to explain how and why certain things work, RahXephon doesn't even try to do so - about everything is left a mystery, more like in Serial Experiments Lain. I liked this Evangelion element of "low-level explanations" a lot because it allows the audience to concentrate on the "high-level mysteries" - therefore I am missing it desperately in RahXephon. In Evangelion, you may mess your head with questions like which intentions SEELE, NERV, Gendou and Rei have at certain stages; in RahXephon you have little chance for doing so because all you get about the background is very vague hints. That's what originally made me downgrade 'Series Story' quite a lot, but now that I've read some background stuff (about Mu) I'm fine with that. As for the underlying symbolism, RahXephon obviously tried to provide something of equal weirdness as Evangelion did. Where NGE used the Kabbala, biotech stuff and the A.T. field, RahXephon seems to be using ancient South American (Orin => Ollin, a Mexican sun god; and the name "Maya" of Ayato's mother obviously has a reason) and Babylonian (Ishtori => Ishtar, the lightbringer goddess) mythology, and ... MUsic (Xephon => "music of the world"; Dolem => Do-Re-Mi; and note how all their names like "Allegretto" or "Fortissimo" are Italian technical terms of musical tempi, performance styles etc.), as a mathematic science and technology! (Which causes the problem that, music being part of the storyline, this has a massive influence on the soundtrack, and not one that I particularly like... using music as a weapon will result in very disharmonic sounds every now and then.) While Evangelion's Shinji has problems to handle other characters all the time, RahXephon's Ayato seem to be not only more mature (he's three years older than Shinji) but much easier to handle (the "problem children" are other characters in this series for quite some time). So while Evangelion focused a lot on Shinji's relation to his fellow pilots and Misato, RahXephon shows a large number of side characters and the relations amongst them. This made it hard to me to keep focused on the storyline. The final quarter of this series then puts its focus on Ayato again. Anyway, this show is exciting, has nearly no filler elements, lots of foreshadowings, nice cliffhangers, and is full of suspense. I consider it difficult to understand who the main protagonists really are and what their intentions were, but that's true for other shows as well, so that's just another challenge. I was disappointed after the first viewing but reading some analysis (linked below) gave me more insight about what this story was actually all about. I hate to say that - but through the last quarter of this series it became very Evangelion-like again but made all the mistakes that both endings of NGE made. If you want to be happy with that show, maybe you'll have a lot of work to do, just like I am about to do. Especially reading James Churchward's book "The Lost Continent of Mu" (that Ayato himself mentions in episode 5) seems to be required in any case. So - this series is not for those who demand for easy answers, as you won't get them. Even with a lot of speculation (see links below) many things remain unclear - such as what the intentions of the Mu exactly are, why the war really started (and why Mu didn't make us of their full firepower), how the black and white eggs were created, who built Tokyo Jupiter (and how that happened), and what Quon is up to in the end. And RahXephon The Movie isn't compatible enough to this series as to answer any of these. Edit: I should note that reading Banksie's excellent site (see link below) about this series and then rewatching the series improved this whole thing for me significantly. It's just that NGE has a certain degree of magic that I don't get by this series - but maybe that's just me. Last updated Tuesday, December 18 2007. | ||||||||
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| Buy | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 9 | Kari | # | |
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I love RahXephon; I think it’s better than Argento Soma. It has a well-written plot, great music, animation, character designs, and voice acting by both the Japanese and English speaking actors. The only thing that bugged me was the deaths of several likeable characters. As for the dub, Chris Patton is terrific as Ayato Kamina, as are Vic Mignogna as Mamoru Torigai, and Cynthia Martinez as Hiroko Asahina. RahXephon can be purchased new for $5.99-$25.99. I recommend buying the ADV release for the extra content. Last updated Tuesday, April 04 2006. | ||||||||
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| Buy | Violet D | # | ||||||
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I would say this is a must see. Beautiful art and great character design. I loved all the episodes from volume 1 to volume 7. I had to watch it through a couple of times to understand what the story was about. Once you watch the first volume you need to rent or buy the others. I bought all 7 volumes to add to my anime collection. This anime has it all drama, mystery,music and Romance.
Last updated Wednesday, June 08 2005. | ||||||||
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| Rent | 10 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | Urmelis | # |
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If you like Neon Genesis Evangelion you realy should like Rahxephon. It has a lot in common with NGE, but also offers something really new. Story is about music so you'll hear tons of good music. This anime is really nice and I really enjoyed watching it. If you are worried that It'll be hard to understand so I can asure you that it is much easier to understand (unlike NGE).
Last updated Sunday, December 12 2004. | ||||||||
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| Rent | Forbin | # | ||||||
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Update : I just watched the last 8 Episodes (I didn't the last time and skipped to the movie) and DAMN this has a f'd up ending. This changed my WHOLE review. It's still a rent but if you don't see the movie you are gonna be pissed. As a whole this is a very good anime. If you just see the series you are gonna be confused. (And I agree with Devil Doll. Boy it doesn't explain ANYTHING) Ok back to the review. This is very much like Evangelion. It has a bunch of super beings flying around and fighting. The 'evil guys' the Mu have a ton of them, and the 'good guys' have one. Rahxephon. It goes fight fight fight, love story, confusion, and dumb ending. But if you watch the movie, you are going to be in for suprise. The movie strips away all the confusing crap, shows you what was REALLY going on, and why the TV series was like that. So my answer is, you better make sure you watch it all including the movie. Or you will just go WTF? Last updated Thursday, September 30 2004. | ||||||||
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| Buy | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 8 | Rogue_Noir | # |
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Though it is obvious that this show is based off of Evangelion, calling it an Eva clone simply doesn't do justice. It has many unique aspects, especially this artsy and surreal feel throughout which I can't describe in words. Go watch it and see; you'll likely enjoy even if you've never seen Eva!
Last updated Tuesday, November 25 2003. | ||||||||
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| Buy | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Anonymous #864 | # |
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I can't give enough positive praise to RahXephon. In fact, it is my new favorite. The animation is OVA quality, the music is simply amazing, and the plot is interesting and deep. For those of you who may argue it's simmilarities to EVA, I say who cares, because RahXephon is better than EVA in every way.
Last updated Sunday, July 20 2003. | ||||||||
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| Rent | 8 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 7 | Greg Bread | # |
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There are a few plot differences here but after its all stripped down its basically like EVA. Not thats there's anything wrong with that, it would be surprising if they didnt make something similar. Its well animated and certain parts in the plot are quite original, the fact that this is an eva clone shouldn't bother you if you liked eva. If you enjoyed eva I suggest you watch this, its not as good but it definetly could have been done worse. Last updated Sunday, June 15 2003. | ||||||||
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| Buy | 8 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 8 | Anonymous #693 | # |
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It starts out like evangelion, but by the 3 episode everything is fresh. Unlike eva the story is clear and the protag is likeable. Like eva there is a misato-like character along with a rei-like one. It also seems like every female character is has a crush on or in love with the protag. the ending is very fulfilling compared to the end of eva.
Last updated Tuesday, May 13 2003. | ||||||||
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| Rent | 9 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 6 | Akito | # |
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This series is just like Evangelion. Even the underlying meaning is similar,too. The main character is fighting not only to defeat the enemy but also to find out his true identity. The graphics design are pretty cool. However, I think that the theme is overused by anime producers. At first, the series seems confusing, however, the ending wraps it all so that it makes perfect sense. Pretty good anime to rent or watch but I don't recommend buying it.
Last updated Friday, January 03 2003. | ||||||||
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Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| RahXephon - BONES site | http://www.mediafactory.co.jp/anime/rahxephon/ |
| Official Website for both the series and the movie (Japanese only) | |
| RahXephon Online | http://www.escaflowneonline.com/rahxephon/ |
| A fansite about RahXephon - not quite complete but at least ... | |
| RahXephon - Orchestrations and speculations | http://www.khantazi.org/Rec/Anime/Index.html |
| A very detailed site about the background of RahXephon, with an excellent timeline summary of the story | |
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